Mel’s Muses: Marvel’s Infinite Series Grim Reaper

It’s the dawn of a new era for Marvel action figures as we wave good-bye to Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line and welcome the Infinite Series. The inaugural series also by Hasbro has just hit our local retail stores and the first lineup consists of favorites like the Wasp, ‘Marvel NOW!’ armored Hulk, Hyberion and super-villain the Grim Reaper making their 3.75-inch debuts, as well as reissues of classic Captain America and ‘Bleeding Edge Armor’ Iron Man.

I have to thank the mighty Toy Gods when I found the one figure I was looking for sitting pretty on the racks one hot Saturday afternoon. My collection of bad guys just got a little meaner with the addition of classic Avengers’ villain the Grim Reaper.

If you aren’t exactly familiar with Eric Williams aka the Grim Reaper, he’s the evil brother of Avengers member Wonder Man and probably the villain who has died and returned from the dead the most number of times in the Marvel universe. His hated towards his brother drove him insane and he was also the brains behind super-villain groups such as the Lethal Legion. He was last spotted in the current issues of the Uncanny Avengers as a member of the Horsemen of Death.

Now onto the figure! It’s a good enough 3.75-inch figure. The face is almost perfect, especially with the smirk. I just love that costume and how it doesn’t much any sense at all. Those weird panels sticking out of his head, I have no idea what they are for but I love them!

The cape provides a nice balance to an otherwise slightly wobbly figure as the then legs, knee hinges and swivel ankles weren’t exactly doing a good job. The swivel waist was way too loose on my figure as well.

But my main complaint has to be his scythe. It’s made of a softer bendy plastic and looking at how it was packed, you can tell it’s going to be curved inwards when it’s out of the pack. This really irked me whenever I have to pose him for all these shots. Good luck finding a straight one. They should also have made the scythe attached to a swivel wrist so I can at least turn it around. In the comics, he could spin it like a high-speed propeller blade.

Despite those few faults, this is still a very cool figure. Nice sculpt and I had lots of fun posing it. Given the rich history of this Marvel character and his ties to the Avengers, any fan would appreciate the Grim Reaper in his or her collection.